


The next time around

by Yuhi_san



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Awkward Flirting, F/M, Humor, Pick-Up Lines, Rebirth, Romance, at least it's implied
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-09
Updated: 2016-10-09
Packaged: 2018-08-20 06:35:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8239510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yuhi_san/pseuds/Yuhi_san
Summary: In another world and time, Carolina needs some help with her lock. And the help comes in form of a charming worker from York Lock and Key Service.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Haeleen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haeleen/gifts).



> I originally started this a week before the RTX16 when me and my friend were in Miami. We came across a car that was parked at the hotel next to us and it read ‘York lock and Key Service’. And from there it went on and on. Haha, that’s what happened.
> 
> No Beta, unfortunately.

Carolina was seriously inclined to call this day the worst of her life. Granted, she knew that wasn’t true per say; her whole life had been a lot worse at some point.

However, she wasn’t exactly known for her patience when things didn’t go her way.

It had started already this morning when she woke up half an hour too late because her phone’s battery went out overnight. In her hurry she managed to break her breakfast bowl, then got harassed by some creep on her morning jog and after that the waitress at her favorite coffee spilled the coffee over her trousers.

Back at home she realized that she had left the hair dye she bought the day before at her parents place. With her odious blonde roots showing she had to go to her part time job as trainer of a water polo team from a nearby university. It went horribly in all the ways possible, as it did ninety-nine pre cents of the time.

Going out with her friends later didn’t go all that well either. Carolina hadn’t wanted to go in the first place because she honestly and deeply despised the blonde of her hair. The place they went had been too loud, the people too drunken and obnoxious. At least for Carolina, but her friends who ditched her to make out with some guys didn’t see it that way. Then again, they were luckier then she had been with. The only man that really ha approached her was about three times her in width, smelled and looked like he hadn’t showered in a week and basically started his interaction with her by grabbing her ass.

So she ended up storming out of the club eventually and ended up breaking off one of her shoos heels.

In hindsight she probably should have given into the urge of breaking his nose. Maybe then the key to her apartment would still be intact. 

Maybe worst day of her life was justified after all, sitting outside her apartment, staring grimly into the rain that just started while she was waiting for the lock service guy.

When the blue-white car of the lock and key service finally pulled over, Carolina was already impatiently tapping her foot when the guy made his way up to her. He flashed her the brightest smile she had seen in ages.

Somehow it made her wanting to punch him for being in such a good mood at three in the morning while she was irritated after a shitty day.

„So, you are Carolina, todays damsel in distress?“ he asked her, still all smiles despite the glare she sent his way.

Carolina opened her mouth to tell him a thing or two about damsel in distress when he held out his hands to her and said: „It’s York.“

„What?“

„It’s York. As in your catch for the night.“ The man winked at her and put up what she was sure was his most charming smile. All Carolina could do at that was stare. Once he noticed it he faltered and his smile dropped along with his hand 

„Or, you know, just the guy from York Lock and Key.“ He sounded almost disappointed when he shrugged and put up a weary smile instead 

 _Why ever_ , Carolina thought. He was here to help her with her key problem, not to try pick up lines on her. Which was, she thought, what he tried. She also thought he was checking her out. His eyes went down her body, not lingering at one place enough to seem rude but still taking in all of her. Her red hair in dire need of dye, her gleaming green eyes and the lipstick currently redder than her hair. Down her neck and neckline, along her waist and hips to her now bare feet before back up.

Attention from a man was nice, especially if he didn’t have this expression in his eyes as if he was mentally already undressing her. He was well-kempt too and honestly, not bad looking at all. However, he did look like his jaw was about to drop. Suddenly feeling a little flustered for no reason, Carolina cleared her throat to get the man’s attention back to the matter at hand.

„The lock, please?“

When his eyes shot up and meet her own, Carolina found herself surprised at the way he looked at her. It made her feel as if he saw more than just a bottle redhead with broken heals. He was looking her with brown eyes dark and intense, all warm and full of something Carolina couldn’t quite put a finger on. But it was making her feel warm and unable to look away. She wanted to know what it was that made her feel this tingly feeling buzz in her body and left her al fluttery.

„Lock. Uh, right. So what did you do? Lose the key?“ the York guy was the one to break the silence that was clearly getting awkward and moved to examine the lock. Carolina gave herself a mental slap to get back to reality. Because falling in love at first sight with the guy that was about to fix your lock was so cliché. Enough to hurt, really.

 _I need to stop reading these books_ , she told herself. _Like right now_.

She cleared her throat again and said: „I broke the key“ while fishing the upper half of it out of her pocket. York stopped in his tracks to turn his head and full on stare at her.

„You… broke… the key?“

„I broke the key. Into two parts, one still reminding in the lock“ Carolina repeated and waved with the rest of the key, surpassing a smile at the stunned look the man gave her.

„Oh-kay. So, uh, that happens occasionally."

„Does it, really?.“

He was silent for a few moments, then „Actually, nope. Never heard anyone could do that.“

He finally started to really examine the lock and damage she had done so Carolina leaned back against the railing and watched him. „Soo. How did you break the key in the first place?“ he wondered and Carolina sighed deeply.

„I didn’t exactly have the best day today and sometimes that stupid lock is stuck. I just tried to finally turn the key all the way and it just“ she snapped her fingers „broke in a half.“

York still was crouched in front of her door but turned to look at her. The half-smirk that hadn’t left his face except for the stunned look before still reminded, tugging at his lips. „Huh. Now that’s something. But luckily I’m here now and can fix this. Before you’re gonna break the door. Or me, in case I haven’t been making your day just yet.“

When Carolina did nothing else except for crossing her arms and staring at him with a blank face, the mans smile final dropped. „Alright, let’s just forget I said that. It sounded a lot better in my head, just for the record.“

„Uh-hu." 

With a nervous smile York scratched the back of his neck. He got up again and fished out his car keys. „I gotta replace the lock but that doesn’t sound like a waste, right? I won’t be able to fix this anyway, it’s like with a gull-wing door of a car. Once you block the opening mechanism with a pin and it gets deformed, you have to replace it.“

„That sounds awfully specific“, Carolina said, eyebrow raised.

York flashed her another smile but this time one that was all cheeky. „I’ll get my tools“, He told her with a wink and then he was gone.

It was ridiculous, so, so, ridiculous but Carolina caught herself looking at her blurry reflection in the window and tugged at a few wry strands of her hair as soon as he was out of view. She knew then and there that this was it 

This was the bottom of rock bottom.

Either that or that guy from the water polo team was right after all and she needed to get laid very badly again. That at least would have explained the flutter in her stomach that made her feel like she was the main protagonist in a Nora Roberts roman.

When York came back up with a bag tool, Carolina stood with her arms crossed. Trying to show an air of impatience. Strangely enough she didn’t feel that upset anymore for no clear reason. And there was no way it was because of this stranger, that was a total movie thing only.  
It also didn’t seem appropriate that he still had this bright smile, all withe teeth, despite the late hour and that he just got soaking wet within the two minutes it took him to get his tools.

Maybe his overly gelled hair wasn’t the only thing resistant to the weather, she thought, amused.

„Okay, we are lucky you didn’t kick the door open or anything, because then we would have a blaring alarm going on.“

„You are telling me that’s no big deal to fix for you?“

„A big deal? For me? Hah, just watch me, it’s a piece of cake.“ He said enthusiastically.

She doubted that. But she watched anyway.

 

Within a couple of minutes York disabled the lock and door handle. He managed to hum a song all the while and glance back at her seemingly more often than he did look at his work. Once he had everything laid out neatly on the side he looked up at Carolina with the most self-satisfied smirk she ever saw (which with her circle of friends meant something) 

 _It_ _might_ be _the_ _most_ _handsome_ _smirk_ _as_ _well_ , _though_ , the love stories poisoned part of her brain supplied.

„Now, am I your great hero or am I your great hero?“

Carolina rolled her eyes at him but she felt nowhere near as annoyed as she thought would be reasonable. „Fine, looks like you really know how to do your job, Mr. Lock Hero. You _did_ save my day.“

Her tone was not unkind and he smirked even more as he stood. It really was a gorgeous, she thought. A nice thing to end the day with and think about before sleep. York got ready with another attempt to show her his charming side by opening the door for her in a very gentleman manner 

That was when her little fairy tale world got shattered by the loud blaring alarms.

Carolina felt immediately at high alert and York did a spectacular jump back, almost falling over his tool and then nearly down the stairs.  
„What the…!? Aw, c’mon!“ he threw up his arms in an overly dramatic fashion before he turned to face her. „I swear“ he started, sounding sincere enough that Carolina could almost believe this was about life or death, „That never happened to me before. Never.“

„Right. Sure.“ She returned drily with her fingers plugged in her ears. „I’m sure I’m not the first lady hearing this.“

„Hold on now, that’s a whole different story there! I never-„

„The alarm. Can you please shut it off? Right now, preferably.“

Some of her neighbors already had opened their windows or even doors to gape. Despite her self-confidence, Carolina hated it if people would stare at her. And even more she hated the talks in the quiet.

 

It actually took York only a short time to shut off the alarm, even if he did so with a lot of complaining (who designed something that stupid? That shouldn’t even be like this in the first place!). What took far longer was the call to the security company and convince them that everything was fine, there was no thief or anything broken, and yes, it was a little slip from the worker of York Lock and Key that triggered the alarm (it wasn’t actually his fault!) And they really didn’t need to come.

„So, now that was something“, Carolina pointed out once everything had settled and her curious neighbors had retreated. The smile York gave her in return now was sheepish. A new variety to the plate, huh.

„Yeah, sorry about that. I, uh, will fix it, promise.“ Carolina returned only blank stare and after a couple of seconds the smile dripped from his face. „Right, that‘s obvious, isn’t it?“

The corner of Carolinas mouth twitched into a smile. „Yeah.“ She moved past him through the door but turned around then to lean against the doorframe. She was about to say something, had the quip already on her tongue. But once she looked at him again, at his dark eyes that watched her so fondly, so wistful that it made her heart ache, the words were gone just like that.

They stood like that in silence for a few moments, but it felt like the longest time. Carolina tried to get a grip on her heart that was beating unreasonably quick and her stomach that wouldn’t stop to flutter. Tried to decide if offering him a hot coffee at three a.m. in a rainy night would be a great or awful idea.

„Since I’m probably not going to see you again tomorrow there is something I really need to know”, York broke the silence, his words came out in a rush. “If I said I like your shirt, would you hold it against me?“

Silence fell again, only disturbed by the even drum of the rain that fell on the roof. York smiled nervously and he did that thing with his thumb and index finger that reminded her of her friend flicking on her lighter over and over again.  
And it just… it just did it.

It was like all the strass, the anger and frustration of the day just fell off her right then and there. Her words, however, seemed to have melted along with all the negativity as well.

„It’s, uh, the color, you know. This greenish-blue like turquoise. Or seafoam?“ York tried to save what he saw as a failed attempt and somehow just made it a lot more awkward than before.

„I’m pretty sure it’s cyan.“ She smiled at him, as sweetly as she could manage. But there was a reason that Carolina had been single for a long time now. Dealing with men wasn’t exactly her strong point and dates? Dates were the worst because she always seemed to mess up somehow. As she did now and this wasn’t even a date to begin with, for gods sake.

Yorks smile fell away entirely and was replaced with a look so disappointed that she got the ridiculous urge to play along this stupid cheesy love story script and say literally anything to fix the situation. York cleared his throat before he gave her what she thought to be one last smile.

She never saw anything that seemed more disappointed.

„Right, cyan. I should- I should probably go now. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure someone comes to fix the lock first thing in the morning.“ He told her and grabbed his tool bag to sling it casually over his shoulder. „Have a good night and… maybe we met again.“

He tried not to sound hopeful but mostly it was disappointment and maybe even hurt anyway that was in his voice. Carolina didn’t understand what is going on yet. The feelings he showed her so openly and the ones that seemed to claw at her insides didn’t make any sense because this was not a romantic movie.  
What she did know, though, was that if she didn’t finally say something – something god damn useful – then was going to be a drama for sure.

But her throat was tight and her mind blank and before she knew it, she watched him shuffle towards the stairs. His shoulders were hunched and it shouldn’t be like that and it shouldn’t made her heart ache stupidly.

Only when Carolina saw the shock of his brown hair disappear, her limbs seemed to set in again. She turned on her heels, slipped into her apartment and banged the door way louder than she intended to. With quick steps the redhead hurried towards the kitchen window to squint outside. Quickly she scanned the parked cars down in the street but couldn’t make out the service van.

Next was the window in her bedroom and indeed, there it was. The white van with the logo of York Lock And Key. Now she just had to be quick.

If destiny wanted to fool her in thinking this evening could be right out of one of the books laying on her table then fine, she would play along.

 

* * *

 

 

So, he was pretty sure he could find a more accurate and also melodramatic word for how he felt right now than simply ‘depressed’. But he didn’t feel the energy for it as he shuffled down the stairs and towards his van. And honestly, it felt pretty appropriate.

For a moment up there everything just seemed right. As if finally every piece fell into the right place. Alright, fine, that sounded like he made up some stupid spiritual bullshit here but he really wasn’t. And he didn’t only think so because he believed in love at first sight.

I was just- when he saw her he felt something he never felt before. Something he couldn’t put into words.

„Hey! York!“

He turned around and looked up only to see Carolina leaning out of the window. He might be gaping at the sight because oh wow that view. He never thought he would find a sport bra that sexy. It was taking him enough into his spell to blend out the pouring rain as well as whatever she was saying.

„Uh, what?“

„I said if you like the color that much, you can have it.“ Carolina balled her shirt up and threw it down. He caught it absentminded, eyes still on the nice view. His brain was desperately working on coming up with anything good to do or even say, for gods sake, because he was making a fool out of himself here.

The blank in his head got swept away when Carolina started talking again because she had all his attention. “But I’m gonna want it back eventually, just remember that.”

When she made a move to retreat and close the window he felt a wild surge of panic.

“Wait, wait!”

Carolina stopped in her tracks and looked down, green eyes all curious and expectant. York fumbled nervously around in different pockets for just something – anything – to trade in turn. When he started to think he had only garbage on him his finger brushed over the smooth metal of something small and angular. He brought out a lighter he got once as a freebie. It was nothing special but it wasn’t that bad either so he hadn’t thrown it away.  
It would have to do, it seemed.

York threw her the lighter and she caught it with ease. Raised an eye brow once she exclaimed the small silvery object.

“I’ll need that back too, eventually” he said, just in case it was unclear.

Carolinas laugh mixed with the falling rain, with the wind in the trees and the cars in the streets and yet it was all York heard. “We’ll see about that” she said with a smirk and it was the last thing he heard from her before the window closed.

 

 

It was only three hours later that York found the number written on the shirt.

It took another two days for him to work up the courage to call her.

Another four days before the first date.

Then a whole week to the second one.

Exactly seventeen days before he spent the first night with her.

It took a month before they were official.

Fifty-seven days before he talked about moving in together and Carolina smacked him. She did it with a smile but it still took some time before they looked for an apartment.

On the day a year later he told her he knew from the first moment they were soulmates. She laughed and called him a hopeless romantic but that’s’ okay. He knew three things for sure:

They were meant to be together all along.

Their story just begun.

Nothing can tear them apart for good.

And well, he’s not gonna get his lighter back either.

Wait, was that four?

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed it. And maybe someone even understood my God Eater at the very end??  
> English is not my mother language, btw.


End file.
